Friday, 4 December 2015

When the British
left India in 1947, India had a long way to go to overcome poverty and
illiteracy. Though it was not easy; India
has made great strides in this regard since independence. However, the
initiative to make changes in the society started long back before we got
freedom from foreign rule and was mainly marked with the emergence of
non-government organisations (NGOs) in the 19th century. Since
then, NGOs have served as backbones of our development. Today,
India is home to more than 31 lakh NGOs and The Akshaya Patra Foundation,
is one of them. Therole of NGO varies
from ending classroom hunger to providing education for underserved children in
India. The organisation receives donation for childrenfrom different parts of the world to feed millions of students in
India.

Though overall
development has been the main focus, NGOs also play various roles in India, including
health, child education, hunger, child labour and rural development. However, only a few, like The
Akshaya Patra Foundationhas
succeeded in making large strides. The NGO
started its humble efforts to fight classroom hunger in June 2000. However it
was only in November 2001, the Supreme Court of India ordered all State
Governments and Union Territories to start a mid-day meal scheme for school children.
The organisation was soon recognised as an implementing arm of the Government.
Impressed with the quality of the school lunch programme run by the NGO, many
State Governments have partnered with the organization in India.

The Role of NGO in the expansion
of the Mid-Day Meal programme is really noteworthy. The NGO, which has actively
volunteered and stood for the cause, at present, feeds over 1.4 million
children in 10,845 Government schools and Government-aided schools in 24 locations across 10 states in India. It is also considered to
be the world’s largest NGO-run mid-day meal programme.

Apart from ending
classroom hunger, therole of NGO
has extended to improve school attendance, school enrolment rates, nutritional
status of children and women empowerment. Over the past 15 years, people from
different parts of the world have supported the initiative. No wonder, The
Akshaya Patra Foundation has 24 kitchens across the country.

Here is the video of a child talking about mid day meal gives hope for his dream.

The Mid-Day Meal
programme of Akshaya Patra has been running mainly through receiving donation for children. Supporting
the programme is not a costly affair anddonation for children starts from ₹750 onwards. Additionally, the
organisation also gives an opportunity to donate in memory of or in honour of
someone you love or respect. Of them all, the most important definitely, is the
tax exemption donations. Donation of ₹ 500 or above is eligible for 100% tax
exemption in India.

There is no
doubt in the fact that, NGOs such as Akshaya Patra has helped build a better
India. However, we want to expand our
programme to 5 million children by 2020.

The situation will be far better, if each one of
us come forward and participate in the programme to support the organization to
feed the children for education.